Tower for elevating construction materials



April 12, 1932. A. T. scANNl-:LL

TOWER FOR ELEVATING CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS 5 Sheets-Sheet l OriginalFiled March 11, 1929 April 12, 1932- v A. T. scANNELL 1,853,086

ATOWER FOR ELEVATING CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS Original Filed March ll,1929 5 ShetS-Sheet 2 Aprxl 12, 1932. A. T. sQNNLL TOWER FOR ELEVATINGCONSTRUCTION MATERIALS Original Filed March l1, 1929 3 Sheets-SheetPatented Apr. 12,` 1932 ALBERT fr. soANNELL.

OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS TOWEE-VFOR ELEVATING- CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS fOriginal application filedl March 11, 1929;. Serial No. 345,963. .yDivided and this application led ecember '30, 1929; Serial No. 4l7;364.

My invention relates to improvements in towers forelevatingvconstruction materials. rlhis applicationl is a divisiony of myapplication Serial No. 845,963 filed' Marchll,

`1929, for improvements Ain towers for Velevating constructionmaterials'. Certain features are also claimed in another divisionalapplication, 462,861, filed June 21, 1930', which issued March 31,l1931, as rPatent 1,798,501. e

The commercial embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawingsis of the typeA known as a sectional pipe tower in that the vertical.corner members are made of shortl lengths of pipe arranged end to end invertical alignment and yhaving horizontal girts and diagonal bracingalsomade of pipe, they sections'v thus formed beingk strong, light, and

the parts thereof being readily fitted together',- whereby a tower maybe erected fairly'rapidly and after being'used may be taken apart andreassembled in a new location. y

Many of the improvements described here-1 inare applicable toconstruction towers in general, regardless of the cross section of thevertical compression members, that is, they may ber used' in connectionwith a woodentower, a steel towerbuilt up ofy angle lron,

' channels, I beam sectionsor other sections and ofany.suitablematerial.

' The objects of the invention are: to provide a light, strong tower,the parts of which maybe quickly elevated and iitted tothe preced-ingsections; to provide atower having a tra-ck or vertical guides for thedumpfbucket or the material platform made in sections which may bereadilyfsecured to the ltower sections and fittedv together in verticalalign-- ment; to provide a series'of short members, secured to theoutside of the tower and arranged in vertical alignment to form, in ef-lfect, a speciali vertical track whereby the hopper frame may be securedthereto and raised from time to time as necessary but without requiringa continuous track, thereby eliminating this expense; to provide aconstructionin which a cat-head ycan be ar'- ranged tov slideLvertically inside the tower whereby the labor and expense of raising'said 'cathead from: time to, time is .greatlyy reduced; to provideasingle well tower in which.

a cat-head is vertically adjustable insidethe tower, andv a concretebucket' may operate in` side the tower and a material elevator operatingoutside the tower whereby a single tower may perform the function of adouble tower.A Various otherv objects and advantages will' be apparentfrom the following description.

- In the; drawings: l p

- Fig. 1 isa side elevation of a double tower,

although it may Lserve' also to illustrate a sections and? thevsupporting horizontal girt.V l

Fig. 8 is an enlarged side view of twoaligned corner posts andassociated parts,

Fig; 9 is a front viewthereof,

Fig. 10 is a top plan view.

Where a single toweris to `be erected,a base ltl yisprovided for'supporting the tubular corner posts 11, of;v which there are four, thelower' ends of' said posts or pipe lengths` be-t ing received withinsuitable corner f socketsA as shown. Where a double tower comprisingfour cornerposts and two intermediate posts is tobey erected,`therectangular'base is made proportionately longer.

The ind'vidual corner posts may be of y any desired length, experiencehaving shown that a length of six feet six inches, isa Con-v vement one.

The corner posts are connected at or near.

their endsby horizontal girts 12 and diagonal bracing 13, all of whichis preferably of tubu-v lar form, i. e. consisting of tubes flattened atthe ends and bolted to the upright members,

as `hereinafter' described.

v Within the tower is a. vertical track consisting of a pair' of tubularmembers 14, (see Figs. 1 and 4) one on each side of the tower, and'where a double tower is erected, such a track' is 4provided in each well(see Fig. 3').

The concrete bucket 15 is arranged to slide u and down on the track inwhat may be called the concrete hoisting well, in a double tower. Amaterial elevator, hereinafter referred to, slides up and down on thetrack in what may be called the construction material hoisting well.

A cable 1G is attached to the bucket frame and extends upwardly, passingover sheaves 17, 18 on a cat-head 19, said cable passing downwardly andunder another sheave 20 on a shea-ve frame 21, bolted to the bottom ofthe tower.

A hopper frame 22 is arranged to slide up and down on what is called thefront face of the tower which is the side thereof facing the buildingunder construction, and is bolted thereto, except when being raised tosuccessively higher positions. It carries a hopper 23 fixed thereto andin the form shown also has a chute 24 pivoted thereto above the hopperand arranged to extend into the tower, the hopper being on the outsidethereof. The arrangement is such that the dump bucket 15 dumps concreteinto the chute 24, from which it fiows into the hopper 23 and thence isdelivered into cars 25, or to chutes, or is otherwise distributed.

A construction material platform 26 is arranged to slide vertically inthe other of the two wells. In fact the frame which carries the concretedump bucket is designed to have a platform substituted for the dumpbucket after the concrete work is finished so as to provide a secondconstruction material platform as hereinafter explained.

The corner posts are connected, in vertical alignment, and are braced,as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. Each tubular corner post 11, as well as thetwo intermediate posts, in the case of a double tower, has a tubularmember or sleeve 27 fitted over the end thereof, preferably the upperend` and projecting beyond the same to form a socket for the lower endof the pipe length above it. This tubular sleeve is bolted to the lowerof the two adjacent pipe lengths by a bolt 28 and is bolted to the upperof the two by a bolt 29. These bolts also pass through the flattenedends of the tubular diagonal braces 13.

In Fig. 2 there are three vertically aligned series of tubular posts onthe side of the double tower facing the building. The two right handseries have means thereon constituting an interrupted track Qn which thehopper frame may slide. These additional members are shown also in Figs.8 and 9 and comprise short lengths of angle irons 30 secured to thepipes 11 by the same two bolts 28 andy 29 which pass also through thehorizontal girts and diagonal braces. Each angle iron 30 has a channel31 welded thereto which supports a short lengt-h of angle iron 32 inspaced relation to the tower. The outer flange of this angle ironconstitutes the guide or interrupted track and has one or more openingstherein to permit the hopper frame to be bolted thereto. These flangesare arranged in vertical alignment and the hopper frame is preferablylong enough to overlie at least three of them at a time, whereby theyserve as a track as well as supporting brackets for said hopper framewhen the latter is bolted in any position of vertical adjustment.

The hopper frame is indicated fragmentally in Fig. 1() and consistspreferably of vertical channel members 33 and transverse channel members34 together with diagonal braces 35 shown in Fig. 2. The latter areimportant,

as some of the diagonal bracing of the tower is removed when theequipment is in use with the hopper frame in fixed position. Thisdiagonal bracing on the hopper frame serves, in effect, to replace thediagonal bracing removed. In other words, the hopper frame fi stifl'ensthe tower.

The channel frame has angle irons 36 secured thereto with a series ofaligned openings therein to enable said frame to be bolted to the tower.These angle irons together with the adjacent parallel bars 37, (see Fig.10) constitute the guides which slide on the angle irons 32 previouslyreferred to. Bolts 38 secure the angle irons 36 to the angle iron 32 asshown also in Fig. 10.

When it is necessary to raise the hopper, a cable is secured to the topthereof and, passing over a suitable sheave at the top of the tower, isoperated by power or a block and tackle are used.

The construction of the vertical track for the dump bucket frame willnow be described. Each section 14, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, consistsof a pipe having a notched plate 39 welded thereto at its upper end,which plate may be hooked over the horizontal girt 12 to support saidpipe. Said horiontal girt has plates 40, 41 welded thereto, one of whichprojects preferably a little higher than the other, said otherprojecting a little lower than the first one and said plates beingspaced apart far enough to receive the plate 39 between them. Thesefixed plates prevent lateral movement of the pipe sections 14 and insurevertical alignment thereof, even though each pipe section is supportedat one point only. The staggered arrangement of the plates 40 and 41make it easy to lower the notched plate 39 between them, regardless ofthe manner in which the horizontal girt is bolted in place; for example,it is immaterial if the end to end arrangement of said girt is reversed,as in either position one of the fixed plates projects above the other.Each tube 14 has an insert 42 therein, either a short length of pipe ora solid plug which projects therefrom and serves to lock the adjacentpipe lengths together. As shown in Fig. 7, the notched plate may bebolted between the adjacent xed plates, at inter-vals, to prevent thepipe 15, the latter is pivoted thereto about the rodk 44 as-shown inFigs. 1 and 2, the rollers 45 d Y engaging guides onthe pivoted chute 24as the bucket moves upwardly past it, in a manner which is wellunderstood. The construction of the bucket, the sliding frames. and ofthe hopper and its frame are described in detail in my above identifiedapplication.

The bucket dumps entirely within they tower,

that is, as it, turns up side down, it clears the inner sides of thetower, whereas dump buckets used heretofore inside of a'tower have beenyarranged to strike -ixed brackets or guides on the tower, the bucket,as it inverts, swinging upwardly beyond the plane of the tower to dumpinto-a hopper outside of the tower.

By the arrangement provided herein, the concrete is conveyed fromthebucket within the towerto the hopper withoutthe tower by the pivotedchute which passes through the plane of one face of the tower aspreviously described. While a tilting dump bucket is preferred, many ofthe advantages of the arrangement described may be retained by using abottom dump bucket. Y

The cables for raising `and lowering the Vdump bucket pass over sheavessupported by the cat-liead 19 which'is'shown in detail in the abovementioned application.`

The cat-head is usually located near the top ofthe tower, as shown inFig. 1, with four corner posts 11 projecting above it. vWhen it isdesired to raise saidl cat-head, the tower is built up four or fivesections higher and asheave, on a suitable frame, is positioned at thetop of the tower to enable the cat-head frame tobe raised by'a cable orarope passing over the slieave. After the catliead is bolted in its newposition, the cables for the concrete bucket and material *elevator arelrepositioned over the sheaves and the tower is again in condition foruse a'ftera comparatively short `delay as compared with the delayspreviously experienced.

To facilitate climbing the tower, suitable steps 46 are secured tothediagonal bracing,

being made preferably of metal straps bent to triangular forni.

IVhat I claim is: 1. A construction tower comprising four 5' verticaltubes for corner posts each tube having a sleeve at one end projectingbeyond the same to form a socket to receive the adjacent 'end of thenext tube, the two tubes on one side of said tower being connected by ahorizontal girt bolted through said sleeves to said tubes and theremaining two tubes on same to form a socket to receive the adjacent endof the next tube, the two tubes on one side of said ltower beingconnected by a horizontal girt bolted through said sleeves to saidtubes, the remaining two tubes on the opposite face being connected inlike manner,

the tubes dening a third face of said tower being connected by ahorizontal girt bolted to the opposite ends of said tubes from whichsaid first mentioned girts are bolted and vertical angle irons securedin place by the saine bolts to form guides for a vertical runaway.

3. A double tower comprising four tubular corner posts with horizontalside land end girts connecting the same and two intermediate tubularposts also connected to said side girts,'additional horizontal girtsconnecting said two intermdiate posts,'one end of each of saidadditional girts being secured to one of said intermediate posts on oneside thereof and the other end secured to the other side of theremaining intermediate posts to posif tion said intermediate girtssomewhat diagonally, means o-n saidend girts for positioning verticalguides, and means centrally lof catedron said additional girts toposition additional vertical guides in the saine location with referenceto said first guides regardless of the end to end reversal of any ofsaid additional girts.

4. The combination with a tower structure comprising vertical corneryposts formed of vertically aligned sections, transverse girts and bracestherefor, connecting members each bolted adjacent a top ofone postsection and the v,bottom of the next upper section, f l' said bolts.being disposed at right angles one to the other and each'securing theends of certain of ksaid girts and braces to said posts, and trackmembers having laterally extending spacing means secured tosaidconnecting members for holding said track members in a plane spaced fromsaid braces and girts of one face .of said tower.

my name.

ALBERT T. SCANNELL. y

